A meeting of Finnish business representatives and Managing Partner of Capital Legal Services Vladislav Zabrodin took place at Nordea Campus in Helsinki on June 14, 2016. The event was supported by the Finnish-Russian Trade Association.

The meeting was opened by representatives of Nordea Bank, Chief Sales Manager Henri Malvet and Analyst Kaj Paulamaaki who presented the report on the current and forecast state of the Russian economy. Oil prices were mentioned in the report as the prevailing factor for the development of the Russian economy.

Vladislav Zabrodin presented the report “Doing Business in Russia. New Normal,” where he spoke about the basic trends in the development of the Russian economy after introduction of sanctions and counter-sanctions in 2014. The bulk of the report was devoted to the legal aspects of localization and import substitution in Russia. Vladislav Zabrodin noted that in spite of the objective difficulties which companies localizing products in Russia face, including lack of infrastructure, low requirements for quality of spare parts, lack of technologies, etc., there are objective positive changes: an incentive legislative base, simplification of investment procedures and special government programs on developing and stimulating local production. Mr. Zabrodin outlined agriculture, information technologies, pharmaceuticals and machinery as the key sectors where localization and import substitution are developing more actively.

Representatives of such companies as Danske Bank, Finnlines, Finnvera, Salesforce, VR and others took part in the meeting. The participants of the meeting noted its importance due to the current economic and political situation.